POLL ANALYSES July 1, 2003
Fewer Say Iraq Worth Going to War Over Failure to find weapons of mass destruction, continuing conflict appear to have major impact
by David W. Moore
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans are more divided over the merits of the Iraq war than they have been since January of this year, long before President Bush aggressively pushed the case for invading Iraq. Currently, 56% of Americans say the situation in Iraq was "worth going to war over," while 42% disagree. In mid-April, just after the United States took control of Baghdad, Americans said the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over by a 73% to 23% margin. Earlier this year, a Jan. 3-5 poll found opinion about as it is today -- 53% saying the situation was worth going to war over, and 42% saying it was not.
A number of factors may have contributed to this decline in public favor, but the two most prominent appear to be the coalition's failure to find weapons of mass destruction, and the continuing fighting in Iraq. An open-ended question asked respondents who felt the situation was not worth fighting over to explain in their own words why they felt that way.
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